The Zhongguancun Green Intelligence Sponge City Eco-Homes Industry Alliance, recently established in Beijing, held a conference on the construction of sponge cities on August 7.

More than 40 experts from over 100 member units of the alliance and some governmental department heads attended the meeting.

The final goal of the alliance is to build ecology-based cities. The alliance will concentrate on issues like transformation of urban development and improving civic management and governance.

Chen Xing, deputy director of the Zhongguancun Management committee's industrial development office, said construction of sponge cities means construction of green, intelligent and ecologically healthy cities.

He also mentioned that the sponge alliance will focus on China's strategic development regions and unite the advantages of difference industries to build standards for more professional and effective sponge cities.

The rapid development of urbanization has brought China problems such as an increase of energy consumption, negative impact on water environments, and a wasting of resources. The fast expansion of cities has also led to unbalanced water resources.

Pan Xiaojun, the first president of the alliance, said the sponge city is one of the models of urban development that can help relieve these water problems. It reflects the effective use and coordination of national land and needs people's support and protection.

Li Qijun, secretary of the Beijing Water Science and Technology Institute, said the construction of sponge cities is a part of the reconstruction of healthy and good water circulation and will require various departments, units and companies to work together to realize a win-win outcome.

The alliance also organized the first summit forum on technology at, which experts discussed the current situation and the future development of the sponge city concept.